Several dozen Ukrainian soldiers have deserted while training in France, according to a French army official.
There have been a certain number of desertions, but they remain very marginal given the volume of people who have undergone training," the official said.
"They were in French barracks, they had the right to go out."
According to the official, the Ukrainian soldiers who were trained in France were subject to a disciplinary regime "imposed by the Ukrainian command".
"We don't criminalise desertion in France", the official said.
"If someone deserted, a French prosecutor had no authority to arrest that individual. The right granted to the Ukrainian authorities on French soil is just a disciplinary right."
France's army trained on French territory 2,300 soldiers from a brigade named "Anne of Kyiv" after a Kyiv-born princess who married King Henri I in the 11th century.
Most of the soldiers were conscripts with no combat experience. They were accompanied by 300 Ukrainian supervisors.
The other 2,200 soldiers in the brigade were trained in Ukraine.
Earlier, Ukraine's land forces commander admitted there were "problems" with the army unit after reports that many of its soldiers had deserted.
The unit was one of several formed last year as Ukraine sought to boost preparations for possible new Russian offensives.
"Yes, there are problems, we are aware of them," Land Forces Commander Mykhailo Drapaty said of the Anne of Kyiv unit, the informal name for the 155th Mechanised Brigade.
Prominent Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov wrote last month that 1,700 soldiers had fled the brigade without going into combat, and that 50 had escaped while training in France.
Asked about Mr Butusov's report, Commander Drapaty said: "I will not refute it."
He said "a number of the facts that were presented did take place", while "perhaps not on the scale and scope that was presented".
"I don't really see what could be described as an abuse of power," said the French army official.
"In any case, nothing has come to light about the Ukrainians being stationed in France or what happened during these training sessions."
He insisted that the training had been in line with the Ukrainians' wishes, in terms of "equipment" and "training time".
Russia claims capture of key town in eastern Ukraine
Russia said that its forces have captured the "important logistics hub" of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine in what would be a key advance after months of steady gains in the area.
Moscow has been pressing hard in the area, and the claimed seizure of the industrial town is a major boost for its forces just two weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, having vowed to strike a peace deal.
Both sides are looking to secure a better position on the battlefield before Mr Trump's inauguration.
Russia said that Ukraine had launched its own counteroffensive on Russian territory over the weekend.
Moscow's units "have fully liberated the town of Kurakhove - the biggest settlement in southwestern Donbas," the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.
It called the town "an important logistics hub" and said its capture would allow Russian forces to seize the rest of the Donetsk region "at an accelerated pace".
The claim came after Russia said that Ukraine had launched a new "counterattack" in its Kursk border region, five months after Kyiv's forces initially seized swathes of the area.
"In the Kursk region we are confidently inflicting losses," Commander of Ukraine's land forces, Mykhailo Drapaty, said.
He declined to comment on the eastern town of Kurakhove, however, saying this was "not my area of expertise".
Kurakhove, which had a pre-conflict population of around 22,000 people, is located next to a reservoir and home to a power station.
The Russian defence ministry said that Ukrainian forces had turned the town into "a powerful fortified area with a developed network of long-standing firing positions and underground communications".
It said that Kyiv's supply operations in the wider area would now be "significantly hampered".
Ukrainian forces did not confirm the claim, saying only that Russia was "conducting assault operations in the urban area of Kurakhove".
Ukraine's General Staff said on Facebook that its forces "repelled 27 attacks in the Kurakhove sector".
Russia's defence ministry also claimed to have captured the village of Dachenske, south of Pokrovsk, another major city in the Donetsk region that its troops are targeting.
The capture of Kurakhove comes at a critical juncture in the conflict.
Mr Trump has promised to bring a swift end to nearly three years of fighting, without proposing any concrete proposals for a ceasefire or peace deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a speech that Ukraine needed to have "realistic discussions on territorial issues", for the first time clearly urging Kyiv to consider concessions of land.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Mr Trump would be crucial to any end of the conflict, in an interview with US podcaster Lex Fridman.
"Trump and I will come to an agreement and ... offer strong security guarantees, together with Europe, and then we can talk to the Russians," President Zelensky said, according to the published translation of the interview held in Kyiv over the New Year.
Mr Trump "has enough power to pressure him, to pressure Putin", the Ukrainian leader added.
President Zelensky said that Ukraine is "maintaining a buffer zone" in the Kursk region, where Russia has sent "strong units" including North Koreans, meaning Moscow cannot deploy them to other regions such as Donetsk.
Russia's defence ministry said its troops "continue to defeat Ukrainian army units on the territory of the Kursk region" and had prevented an attempted "breakthrough" near the village of Berdin.
The extent of the operation or whether Ukraine had secured territorial gains were not clear.
Kyiv seized dozens of villages in the Kursk region shortly after its incursion started on 6 August 2024, but its advances stalled after Moscow rushed reinforcements to the area, including thousands of troops from its ally North Korea.
